Bungie Responds To The Destiny 2 Shader Controversy

Now that Destiny 2 is out in the wild, players are starting to discover the game's various new systems. One of those systems makes shaders consumable items this time around, which has gotten quite a few players up in arms. According to Bungie's Luke Smith, however, there's really not much to worry about.

Shaders are earned through gameplay: leveling, chests, engrams, vendors. We expect you’ll be flush w/ Shaders as you continue to play. (1/4)

With Destiny 2 only launching on Wednesday, players have not had a heck of a lot of time to dive into all of the game's content. In the early goings, though, it was discovered that shaders (items that turn your gear and weapons different colors) have a one-use lifespan this time around.

In the original Destiny, you collected shaders and they became permanent items in your inventory. So long as you didn't delete a shader, you could swap them out as regularly as you like.

If you use a shader in Destiny 2, though, it's only available until you swap it out with another one. Once it's gone, you'll either need to earn it again in the game world or buy it from the premium store for real-world money. People saw this as a frustrating way for Bungie/Activision to make an extra buck off of something that was (usually) free in the original game, especially since you don't see many shaders through the bulk of the game's early levels.

Smith's comments are aimed directly at that phrase "early levels." Since most players had not even received a shader in the first couple of days of play, it seemed like they were going to have to fork over money in order to make themselves look unique in the game world. But as Smith clarifies, the things are passed out on the regular once you put in some time and make it through the game's campaign. According to Smith, players will earn shaders for leveling up, opening chests, cracking open engrams and visiting vendors as they make it into the late and post-game content. In his own words, players "will be flush" with shaders once the game gets rolling.

As Smith explains in further tweets, shaders will drop more regularly once you hit level 20 and get into endgame activities. Since each planet has unique armor and shaders, Bungie's plan was to make them rewards to inspire gameplay rather than items you grab once and just hang onto.

I haven't reached that postgame content yet, but Smith's statement doesn't surprise me. Even about a dozen hours into the game, I'm still wondering where certain systems, items and the like are. It turns out a lot of that stuff has been separated from the campaign and early levels to be discovered after the game. While it feels jarring having that stuff suddenly missing, it also allows the player to focus on what's important in the campaign. Once you get deeper into the game, all of the extra grinding, looting, vendors and the like reveal themselves.

As with many things in Destiny 2, we'll just have to wait and see how things unfold over the first couple of weeks. Hopefully Smith is correct and this whole shader debacle will have been frustration over nothing.